pieces, symphonic works, and operas to spirituals.
Still worked with leading artists, writers, and enter-
tainers of the Harlem Renaissance period, includ-
ing ZORANEALEHURSTON,LANGSTONHUGHES,
and W. C. HANDY.
He was born in Woodville, Mississippi, in May
1895 to William Grant Still, a math professor, and
to Carrie Lena Fambro Still, a teacher. Still, whose
mother fostered his passion for classical music,
went on to study at WILBERFORCEUNIVERSITY.
Controversial charges about his relationship with
Grace Bundy, a fellow student, ended his college
career. Nonetheless, he married Bundy in 1915,
and the couple had four children. After years of
separation, they divorced in 1939, and Still remar-
ried that same year. His second wife, Verna Arvey,
was a concert pianist.
During his college years and premedical stud-
ies, Still emerged as a formidable talent. He orga-
nized popular quartets, staged concerts, and served
as the school’s band conductor. In the years after
Wilberforce, Still joined the Navy during World
War I and later established a professional relation-
ship with W. C. Handy. He joined the staff of Pace
and Handy, the first African-American-owned
music publishing firm. Handy co-owned the busi-
ness with Harry Pace, who went on to establish the
PACEPHONOGRAPHCOMPANY.
Still’s musical successes included performing in
the first orchestra of the all-popular musical Shuffle
Alongand working as musical director for the Black
Swan Phonograph Company, the organization origi-
nally known as the Pace Phonograph Company.
Still’s greatest professional triumphs came dur-
ing the Harlem Renaissance. In 1931 his “Afro-
American Symphony” became the first work by an
African-American composer to be performed by a
major American orchestra. The Rochester Sym-
phony Orchestra performed the multifaceted piece
that included an eclectic mix of musical forms in-
cluding spirituals, blues, and jazz rhythms. In 1929
he provided music for the ballet Sahdji,a perfor-
mance that included a story written by ALAIN
LOCKE. In 1935, he completed the score for Pennies
From Heaven,the Hollywood film starring Bing
Crosby.
In the years following the Renaissance, Still col-
laborated with Langston Hughes on Troubled Island,
an opera for which Hughes composed the libretto.
Still worked with Zora Neale Hurston on Caribbean
Melodies,a work centered around her folklore re-
search and findings. The impressive orchestras that
performed his works included the New York Philhar-
monic, the London Symphony, the Tokyo Philhar-
monic, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Still’s talents and potential earned him na-
tional recognition as the dean of African-Ameri-
can composers. In addition to receiving numerous
honorary degrees, Still was the recipient of several
prestigious prizes, including a HARMONFOUNDA-
TION AWARD in 1927, GUGGENHEIM FELLOW-
SHIPSin 1934 and 1935, and JULIUSROSENWALD
FELLOWSHIPSin 1939 and 1940.Bibliography
Arvey, Verna. In One Lifetime.Fayetteville: University of
Arkansas Press, 1984.
Parson, Catherine. William Grant Still: A Study in Contra-
dictions.Berkeley: University of California Press,
2000.
Still, Judith, ed. William Grant Still and the Fusion of Cul-
tures in American Music.Flagstaff, Ariz.: Master-
Player Library, 1995.Stokes, Elizabeth Stapleton
The pseudonym that ANITA SCOTT COLEMAN
used when she published Small Wisdom,a book of
poems, in 1937.“Stone Rebounds, The”Eric Walrond(1925)
A fictionalized confessional narrative by ERIC
WALRONDthat appeared in the September 1925
issue of OPPORTUNITY.The piece revolves around
a Jewish anthropologist named Kraus, who regards
himself as an “intellectual anarchist.” Kraus, who
is “interested in the Negro problem,” accompanies
his friend Earl into “dark Harlem.”
After a dismal reception at Barrett House,
an artistic colony favored by his white friends,
Kraus accepts Earl’s offer to meet elsewhere. His
arrival in Harlem and his visit to a basement club
subject him to the same scrutiny usually visited
upon African Americans by whites. His conver-
sations with various individuals in the club are
not entirely productive, and soon he is “con-
scious of an enveloping silence” and the aware-498 Stokes, Elizabeth Stapleton